Research - Pan African Medical Journal

Open Access

Research Public awareness and knowledge of the National Health Insurance in South Africa Geoffrey Setswe1,2, Samson Muyanga3, Jacqueline Witthuhn3, Peter Nyasulu3,4,& 1

Human Sciences Research Council, 134 Pretorius Street, Pretoria, South Africa,2Department of Health Studies, University of South Africa, P.O. 392,

UNISA, 0003, Republic of South Africa, 3Department of Public Health, School of Health Sciences, Monash, South Africa, 4School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa &

Corresponding author: Peter Nyasulu, Department of Public Health, School of Health Sciences, Monash University, 144 Peter Road, Ruimsig,

Johannesburg, South Africa Key words: Awareness, knowledge, National health insurance, South Africa Received: 14/01/2015 - Accepted: 19/08/2015 - Published: 09/09/2015 Abstract Introduction: Individuals residing in Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape provinces who had access to public health services were surveyed to determine public knowledge and awareness of the new National Health Insurance (NHI). Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted and a total of 748 adult respondents were sampled using a two-stage systematic sampling design. Data were collected using mobile phone assisted personal interviews. Results: The study found that 80.3% of the respondents were aware of the NHI and slightly less than half (49.8%) of the respondents did not have knowledge of how the NHI works and 71.8% lacked awareness about the origin of the development of the NHI concept in South Africa. The knowledge of what the NHI would pay for was poor and 48.1% knew that the NHI Fund would pay for medical expenses if a person got sick and 45.7% knew that with health insurance, basic health requirement is ensured and that if one becomes ill, medical treatment would be paid for by the NHI Fund, 50.9% of respondents did not understand how the NHI Fund will pay for health care received, only 44.8% understood how the NHI will pay for health care services received. Conclusion: The public education campaigns to increase knowledge and understanding of the NHI scheme might have been inadequate hence might not have penetrated many communities. It is recommended that a comprehensive community consultation plan be established to increase awareness and knowledge of the NHI among community members targeting clinics, schools, pension pay points and other community sites.

Pan African Medical Journal. 2015; 22:19 doi:10.11604/pamj.2015.22.19.6131 This article is available online at: http://www.panafrican-med-journal.com/content/article/22/19/full/ © Geoffrey Setswe et al. The Pan African Medical Journal - ISSN 1937-8688. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Pan African Medical Journal – ISSN: 1937- 8688 (www.panafrican-med-journal.com) Published in partnership with the African Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET). (www.afenet.net) Page number not for citation purposes

1

Introduction

Methods

South Africa has commenced a major transformation process of its

Study design: a cross-sectional survey was conducted in June

health policy which will see the implementation of the National

2013 on adult residents using health services in three provinces of

Health Insurance (NHI) Scheme to guarantee a universal access to

South Africa. This approach allowed measuring participant's

health care for all its citizens. The NHI is expected to be rolled out

awareness and knowledge of the new unfolding NHI scheme, thus

over a 14 year period beginning from 2012 with 10 pilot sites in the

providing a "snapshot" of the level of awareness and knowledge of

country's nine provinces. The principles for establishing the NHI

the NHI at a significant point in time, after the release of the Green

were described in the Green Paper, mainly centred on improving

Paper and launch of pilot sites. This investigation was derived from

access to quality health services and to providing financial risk

a larger impact study of the Monash-Oxfam NHI project involving

protection against health-related catastrophic expenditures [1]. The

adult residents from the three provinces using a pre-test and post-

Green Paper on the NHI was formally published in August 2011 as a

test

consultation document highlighting key elements of the scheme.

provided written informed consent prior to the interview. Ethical

Members of the public and key stakeholders were allowed to

approval was granted by Monash University Research and Ethics

comment and contribute to how they want the scheme to be

Committee.

quasi-experimental

community-based

design.

Participants

implemented [2, 3]. After the first 18 months since the launch of the NHI Green Paper, a report indicated that over a 100

Study sites and population: the study was conducted in Bela-

submissions of comments and suggestions were received by the

bela (Limpopo province), Edendale ( KwaZulu-Natal province) and

Department of Health, from medical scheme administrators, labour,

Nelson Mandela Metropolitan area (Eastern Cape Province). The

pharmaceutical industry, professional associations for various

Edendale Hospital in the Umgungundlovu district in KwaZulu-Natal is

occupations, statutory bodies, government departments, academia,

a NHI pilot site while the other two sites are not. Bela-bela and

civil society and the Parliament [1]. Recent studies have revealed

Edendale are predominantly rural towns while Nelson Mandela

that, due to inadequate knowledge about the NHI concept, low

Metro is a mixture of urban, peri-urban and rural area near Port

income households are initially unwilling to subscribe to such health

Elizabeth. These areas serve a population of approximately 55,000,

insurance schemes because they do not believe in paying for

over 600,000 and about 1,000,000 people, respectively [10].

services they may not use [4]. Poor government's track record of mismanagement and poor service delivery were main reasons why

Sampling and sample size: the three residential areas were each

the general public in Kenya was sceptical about the proposed

systematically subdivided into 3 distinct clusters. Respondents were

National Social Health Insurance Scheme (NSHIS). There were also

selected by using a 3 stage cluster sampling design. A total of 100

fears that previous corrupt officials linked to the National Social

respondents were randomly selected from each of the 3 clusters,

Security Fund (NSSF) and National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF)

amounting to a sample population of 300 in each of the three areas.

would manipulate the new scheme for their gain [5]. The degree to

Subsequently, a total of 900 individuals were selected using a two-

which knowledge influences utilisation, acceptability and smooth

stage systematic sampling design from the three provinces.

implementation of health care interventions has been investigated

Instrument description and data collection: a questionnaire

previously [6-8]. Implementing a new system is no exception to the

was designed and distributed by the National Department of Health.

above. As in the introduction of any new system or change, the fear

It was based on a question-and-answer information brochure

of unknown and protection of interests create anxiety among

derived from the NHI document. The questionnaire tested

stakeholders and this may lead to poor uptake and acceptability of

awareness, knowledge levels and understanding of the NHI and the

such a new system [9]. In order to determine public awareness and

same questionnaire was used in the pre and post-test surveys. Data

knowledge around the NHI scheme among South Africans,

collection was achieved by using mobile phone assisted personal

measurements of public awareness and knowledge from the two

interviews (MPAPI). Mobile-phone-assisted questionnaires were

years NHI experience since the launch of the Green paper and the

completed with selected respondents and submitted over the mobile

one year experience of ten pilot sites were used as a benchmark. In

network covering South Africa to an online data store. Only three of

this paper, we report the findings of a post-test survey.

Page number not for citation purposes

2

the submitted surveys were unaccounted. Respondents were

7.1% from print media, 4.5% from other sources and 0.6% from

identified through the capturing of a unique numeric identifier.

billboards.

Statistical analysis: data analysis from the survey was facilitated

Knowledge of how the concept of NHI was developed in

by using SPSS (version 21.0). Outliers and other inconsistent

South Africa: overall, a quarter (24.7%) of respondents had

variables were identified through completion of frequencies and

knowledge of how the concept of NHI was developed in South

cross tabulations. Chi-square test was used to test for differences in

Africa while more than two-thirds (71.8%) did not have knowledge

groups and t-test for differences in means. P≤.05 was considered

of how the concept of NHI was developed in South Africa (Table

statistically significant. Pre- and post-test questionnaires were

2). A quarter of respondents (25.2%) had knowledge of the

matched for each respondent to assess the change in knowledge

meaning of “health insurance” in the NHI while 17.9% did not. The

and understanding of the NHI and the state on implementation of

latter wrongly said it was the insurance that provided financial help

the NHI. Data analysis, grading and calculation of percentages for

to a family when someone had passed away or covered the costs of

correct answers for each correspondent were conducted. The

the funeral. More than half (56.9%) said they did not know the

percentage level of awareness, knowledge and understanding of

meaning of “health insurance” in the NHI. Almost half (48.1%)

NHI was analysed for each set of questions and answers provided.

knew that the NHI Fund would pay for medical expenses if a person got sick, while exactly the same proportion (48.1%) did not know; 45.7% knew that with health insurance, basic health requirement is ensured and that if one becomes ill, medical treatment will be paid

Results

by the NHI Fund, while 52% did not know and 2.3% were incorrect Demographic analysis: Table 1 shows the characteristics of respondents that participated in the survey. From 900 recruited respondents, 748 respondents were used for the survey giving a response rate of 83.1%. Respondents comprised 212 (28.3%) from Limpopo, 220 (29.4%) from KwaZulu-Natal and 316 (42.2%) from the Eastern Cape. There were more female (62.1%) than the male (37.9%) respondents and 84.6% of the respondents were in the age range of 20-59 years while 7.5% were less than 20 years of age and 7.8% were 60 years and older. The majority of respondents, namely 73.4% were single and 21% were married. The study was conducted in townships where an overwhelming majority of respondents were Africans (98.1%) and only 1.9% were a combination of Whites, Coloureds or Indians. About three quarters (75.6%) were unemployed while only one-quarter (24.4%) of respondents were employed. While 4% of respondents said they had no education, 84.1% had between a primary education and a grade 12 education and 11.9% had a post-secondary school education Table 1. Awareness of the NHI: an overwhelming

(Table 3). Knowledge of what the NHI is all about: overall, 52.4% of the respondents had knowledge of the NHI modalities while 44.6% did not know, 3.1% were wrong. Of those who had knowledge of the NHI system, 49.4% knew that NHI was a system that would use funds collected from general taxation to ensure that all citizens were provided with free healthcare, 49.6% knew that under NHI, healthcare

will

be

provided

to

all,

whether

employed

or

unemployed. More than half (51.3%) knew that NHI was designed to enable South African citizens to receive good quality healthcare at any time they required it and 48.5% knew that NHI will allow people to have equal and fair access to skilled health professionals and finance for healthcare. More than half (53.3%) of the respondents knew that both the rich and the poor would receive proper healthcare of the same quality, 49.6% knew that the NHI Fund belonged to all South African citizens, therefore, hospitals and health care professionals could be paid for the service they provide while 54.9% knew that the NHI is government's plan to take care of

80.3%

of

the

respondents said they had heard of the NHI while 19.7% said they had not. Almost half (49.4%) who had heard about the NHI, said they heard or obtained information about the NHI from electronic media such as radio or television. More than a third, 38.3% said they heard or obtained information from a community organisation,

everyone's health. Majority (62.3%) of respondents knew that the NHI would take 14 years to be fully implemented (Table 4). Knowledge of why we need the NHI: approximately 59.8% respondents knew that access to healthcare was a human right and that through the NHI it was possible for all South Africans to have access to healthcare, while 38.4% did not know their constitutional


3

right and 56.3% knew that the NHI would provide a fair and equal

Who should pay for the NHI?

healthcare system to all South Africans while 41.2% did not know this. Just over half of the respondents (51.8%) knew that because

Less than a third (29.8%) incorrectly thought it would be possible to

all healthcare needs will be paid for through the NHI, it means the

opt out of the NHI, while 49.6% thought this was not possible.

quality of services will be the same throughout the whole country

Interestingly, 54.5% understood that a large amount of the funding

while 45% were not aware. More than half (54%) knew that

would come from general taxes, therefore, all tax payers would

through the NHI, South Africans will be healthier as more primary

contribute to the NHI while 43.2% did not know this. Just over half

health work will be done to prevent illness and people will receive

of respondents (51.7%) knew that all permanent employees would

treatment at early stages of illness while 43.4% did not know,

be expected to contribute to the NHI fund as compared to 44.1%

54.5% knew that both the rich and the poor will have more choices

who did not know. Only 42.7% knew that every person who earns

of health services under NHI while 41.7% did not know. Only 37.5%

over a certain specified amount would be required by law to make a

knew that the NHI will try to ensure that the sickest people would

special monthly payment to the NHI Fund (called the “NHI

receive the largest share of healthcare while 44.1% did not know

contribution”) as compared to 53.3% who did not know.

and 18.4% were incorrect (Table 5).

Additionally, 41.9% of respondents understood that employers would be expected to cooperate with NHI to ensure legible tax

Knowledge of how the NHI will work: overall, 49.8% of

payers make their NHI contributions, similar to pension funds, while

respondents did not have knowledge of how the NHI will work. Less

53.6% did not. Only 40.3% understood that employers will also

than half, 47.1% knew that all NHI patients will enter the healthcare

match their employees' contributions by paying a monthly amount

system at primary healthcare level (clinic level or General

to the NHI, for every worker, while 54.6% did not.

Practitioner (GP) level). The primary healthcare professional would then refer the patient to a specialist or hospital if needed. This is less than 50.1% who did not know. Nearly a quarter (46.9%) of

Discussion

respondents knew that the same standard of care was expected from private and public healthcare providers as NHI will be expected to deal with high standard service providers, whereas 48.7% did not know. Less than half (46.8%) of respondents knew that the government will upgrade hospitals and other healthcare facilities to ensure that the standards of these facilities were improved or good enough to satisfy the standard expected by the NHI compared to 49.6% who did not know. Almost a quarter (46.9%) of respondents knew that money was being spent on training of health care professionals since with good infrastructure and well skilled professionals; the NHI would be successful while 50.1% did not know. More than half of the respondents (52.7%) knew that the NHI will improve preventive healthcare and care in the early stages of illness. This is more than 44.6% who did not know. Only 43.5% knew that the NHI will introduce family health teams in neighborhoods which will provide preventative health services and home-based care, such as nurses, community doctors and homebased carer providers while 52.4% did not know. Only 44.1% knew that the government had started to implement the NHI in pilot sites to determine how it will work, while 53.3% did not know.

The level of awareness regarding the NHI in this study was very high. Approximately 84.6% of the respondents were in the age range of 20-59 years. This was less than the 93.3% of respondents who were between 25 and 65 years of age who participated in a similar study in Nigeria [11]. Only 21% of respondents in this study were married, while 73.4% were single. This is comparable to the 76.7% of respondents who were married in a study conducted by Lawan, et al. in Nigeria [11]. In this study, 80.3% of the respondents had heard of the NHI. Evans and Shisana [12] found that awareness of the NHI in South Africa was very high with 90.8% respondents expressing that the NHI should be a national priority and over 80% saying they would prefer it to the current healthcare system. Awareness about the NHI in South Africa exceeded that in Uganda, where only 40.7% had heard about the proposed Social Health Insurance scheme and more than a half of the respondents (57.3%) had never heard about it [13]. This post-test level of awareness about NHI might be attributed to the work of the Monash-Oxfam NHI project and their collaborating Partners who conducted community consultation processes to raise awareness about the NHI in these areas. In this study, 49.4% of the respondents reported that they heard or became aware of the NHI


4

from electronic media such as radio or television, 38.3% said they

provisions were, or what services were offered under the NHIS [11].

heard or got information from a community organisation, 7.1% from

Awareness and support for NHI in South Africa has grown from

print media, 4.5% from other sources and only 0.6% from

56.9% in 2005 [14] to 73.2% in 2008 [15] to 80% in 2012 [12] and

billboards. This is slightly higher than a Ugandan study where 38%

was found to be 80.3% in this study. This overwhelming support is

reported that they had read about it in local newspapers, 26.9%

not surprising, given the challenges presented by the public health

from fellow staff, 20.4% from radios, 7.4% from television, only

care system and the high cost of private healthcare. This was

4.6% from both television and radios and 2.8% from workshops

confirmed by McIntyre et al [15] who found that the majority of

[13]. Knowledge about what the NHI was all about was generally

South Africans were dissatisfied with the current healthcare system

poor. In this study 44.6% of the respondents did not know what the

and thought private health care was expensive. Awareness and

NHI was all about. This is somewhat lower than 52% of the

support for publicly funded healthcare systems is high in other

respondents in Nigeria who had poor knowledge of NHIS [11]. In

middle-income countries ranging from 70% in Taiwan [16], over

this study, less than half (49.8%) respondents did not have

85% Canada [17] and over 89% in Thailand [18]. Similarly, most

knowledge of how the NHI will work. This is comparable to findings

Australians support Medicare over holding down taxes [19]. These

by Lawan et al [11] where less than half of the respondents in

examples are encouraging for South Africa, as they suggest that

Nigeria knew the objectives of the NHIS, the ways of enrolling in the

awareness and public support for NHI will continue well beyond the

scheme, or the amounts to be paid as premium by the employer

NHI pilot phase.

and employee. Again, 71.8% of respondents in this study did not know how the concept of NHI was developed in South Africa.

Conclusion The knowledge of what the NHI would pay for in this study was also poor. This was surprising as 75.6% of respondents were unemployed and should have wanted to know how the NHI would benefit them. Less than half (48.1%) knew that the NHI fund would pay for medical expenses if a person got sick, and 45.7% knew that with health insurance, basic health requirement is ensured and that if one becomes ill medical treatment would be paid by the NHI Fund. It was encouraging that 54.5% of the respondents understood that a large amount of the funding would come from general taxes, so all tax payers would contribute to the NHI and 51.7% knew that all permanent employees would be expected to contribute to the NHI fund. These findings show that public awareness campaigns about the NHI focused more on what the NHI would pay on behalf of users. The findings in this study on understanding what the NHI would pay for were far lower than in a study conducted in Kumasi, Ghana, where 97.9% of the clients interviewed had heard of capitation payment. Similar to this study,

The study showed that the levels of awareness of the NHI were high in the first two years of its introduction in South Africa. However, knowledge of what the NHI was all about was generally poor. Public awareness campaigns about the NHI were generally good while the education campaigns to increase knowledge and understanding of the scheme were narrow and did not penetrate many communities where information about the NHI was sought. Public awareness campaigns about the NHI focused more on what the NHI would pay on behalf of users. The understanding of what the NHI would pay for in this study was reasonable overall. The overwhelming awareness and support for the NHI must be used to mobilise communities and to increase knowledge and change any negative attitudes about the scheme. Using an information brochure to increase knowledge about a new initiative such as the NHI is not sufficient to achieve that objective.

high level of awareness did not translate into higher level of knowledge [9]. The disappointing findings were that 29.8% incorrectly thought it would be possible to opt out of the NHI, if

Competing interests

they had not voted for the present government while 50.9% of respondents did not understand how the NHI Fund will pay for

The authors declare no competing interests.

health care received. However, the findings in our study were better than outcome of the Nigerian study where less than one-third of the respondents knew which age-group (among children) was eligible for registration under the scheme, what the special social insurance


5

Authors’ contributions 4.

Communities: Part II Initial Lessons from Micro-Insurance

Geoffrey Setswe conceptualized the research paper, analysed and

experiments for the poor. Cal meadow, Micro-enterprise Best

interpreted data and drafted the paper. Peter Nyasulu, Samson

Practices (MBP) Project, Development Alternatives Inc. 2000

Muyanga and Jacqueline Witthuhn critically reviewed the manuscript

May; 37-60. PubMed | Google Scholar

for intellectual content. All authors approved the final version of the manuscript.

Brown, W & Churchill, C. Insurance provision in Low Income

5.

Njeru E, Arasa, R & Nguli, M. Social Health Insurance Scheme for All Kenyans: Opportunities and Sustainability Potential. IPAR

Acknowledgments

Policy

Brief.

2005;

11(2):1-4. PubMed | Google

Scholar

The Authors are indebted to Dr Ethel Zulu who carried out the

6.

Ensor T, Cooper S. Overcoming barriers to health service

survey; Urvarshi Rajcoomar and Wendy Lubbee both of Oxfam-

access: influencing the demand side. Health Policy Plan. 2004;

Australia, Durban office for their role in the original survey. Our

19(2), 69-79. PubMed | Google Scholar

sincere gratitude goes to our partner organizations HAPG, PACSA, Sopkagama and the community volunteers for taking part in the

7.

survey.

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Tables 8.

Boateng D, Kwapong GD, Agyei-Baffour, P. Knowledge, perception about antiretroviral therapy (ART) and prevention of

Table 1: Demographic characteristics of participants

mother-to-child-transmission (PMTCT) and adherence to ART

Table 2: Knowledge of how the concept of NHI was developed in

among HIV positive women in the Ashanti Region, Ghana: a

South Africa

cross-sectional study. BMC Women's Health. Jan 2013;

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13(2):13-2. PubMed | Google Scholar

NHI Table 4: Knowledge of what the NHI is about

9.

Table 5: Knowledge of why we need the NHI

Agyei-Baffour

P,

Oppong

R,

Boateng

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Knowledge,

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7

Table 1: Demographic characteristics of the study participants Variables

Frequency

Percent

Limpopo

212

28.3%

KwaZulu-Natal

220

29.4%

Eastern Cape

316

42.2%

Male

296

37.9%

Female

486

62.1%

Less than 20 years

59

7.5%

20-29 years

292

37.3%

30-39 years

163

20.8%

40-49 years

124

15.9%

50-59 years

83

10.6%

60 years and older

61

7.8%

Single

574

73.4%

Married

164

21%

Divorced

16

2%

Widowed

28

3.6%

African

767

98.1%

White, Coloured and Indian

16

1.9%

Employed

191

24.4%

Unemployed

591

75.6%

No education

31

4%

Primary education

116

14.8%

Grade 10

239

30.6%

Grade 12

303

38.7%

Tertiary

64

8.2%

Other post-school education

29

3.7%

Participants

Gender

Age group

Marital status

Racial group

Employment status

Educational level


8

Table 2: Knowledge of how the concept of NHI was developed in South Africa True

False

Don’t know

The development of the NHI has been under discussion for many years

24.4%

2%

73.5%

A scheme for a National Health Service for South Africa was first discussed in the 1940s

20.1%

4.7%

75.2%

29.5%

3.7%

66.8%

24.7%

3.5%

71.8%

True

False

Don’t know

17.9%

25.2%

56.9%

48.1%

3.8%

48.1%

45.7%

2.3%

52.0%

True

False

49.4%

2.2%

48.5%

49.6%

4%

46.4%

51.3%

2.2%

46.5%

48.5%

3.2%

48.3%

53.3%

4.7%

41.9%

49.6%

2.4%

48%

The NHI is government’s plan to take care of everyone’s health in the future.

54.9%

1.4%

43.7%

It will take 14 years to fully implement the NHI

62.3%

4.3%

33.4%

The current National Health reform has its origins in the ANC health plan of 1994, which included the introduction of a mandatory insurance system Average

Table 3 : Knowledge of the meaning of “Health Insurance” in the NHI concept

It is the insurance that provide financial help to your family when someone passes away or cover the costs of the funeral The NHI Fund will pay for your medical expenses if you get sick With health insurance, your basic health requirement is ensured; this means that if you become ill, your medical treatment will be paid by the NHI Fund.

Table 4: Knowledge of what the NHI is about

NHI is a system that will use funds collected from general taxation to ensure that all citizens are provided with free healthcare Under NHI, healthcare will be provided to all, whether you are employed or unemployed NHI is designed to enable South African citizens to receive good quality healthcare at any time they require it NHI will allow people to have equal and fair access to skilled health professionals and equal and fair access to finance for healthcare Both the rich and the poor will receive proper healthcare of the same quality NHI Fund will belong to all South African citizens so hospitals and health care professionals can be paid for the service they provide

Don’t know


9

Table 5 : Knowledge of why South Africa needs the NHI Don’t

True

False

59.8%

1.8%

38.4%

56.3%

2.6%

41.2%

51.8%

3.2%

45%

and people will receive treatment at early stages of illness

54%

2.7%

43.4%

Both the rich and the poor will have more choice of health services under NHI

54.5%

3.8%

41.7%

37.5%

18.4%

44.1%

Our constitution states that access to healthcare is a human right. Through the NHI, it is possible for all South Africans to have access to healthcare The NHI will provide us with a health care system that is fair and equal for all South African citizens. Because all healthcare needs will be paid for through the NHI, it means the quality of services will be almost the same throughout the whole country.

know

Through the NHI, South Africans will be healthier as more will be done to prevent illness

The NHI will try to ensure that the richest people not the sickest should receive the largest share of healthcare


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